Ton Beek

(b. 18 August 1926, The Netherlands)

Okki Bokki Boef

Ton Beek was born in the Oud West neighborhood of Amsterdam. He studied at the Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs and at the School for Graphic Arts. He was affiliated with the Marten Toonder Studios between 1946 and 1966, where he cooperated on newspaper comics like 'Koning Hollewijn', 'Panda' and 'Kappie', as well as Tom Poes Weekblad. He also developed his own comic, 'Birre Beer', that was published in Algemeen Handelsblad between December 1954 and March 1959. The strip continued to run with reprints in Trouw and 't Kapoentje in the 1960s and 1970s. The first episodes of the strip were written by Phiny Dick, later episodes were written by Andries Brandt and Eiso Toonder.

Birre Beer

Beek has made several advertising comics during the 1950s, including 'De avonturen van Goudrekeltje' for Maggi (1955), 'Hendrik Hamster's hachelijke avonturen' for AssuMij (1957) and 'De wondere werken van Prof. S. Have' for Philips. He was employed by several advertising studios between 1959 and 1967. He then worked for Joop Geesink on productions like 'Rick de Kikker' and was a freelance artist on 'Yogi Bear' stories for the Flintstones comic book by De Geïllustreerde Pers. In the 1970s, he worked for the educational children's magazines by Malmberg. He created the mascot and title comic for Okki, called 'Okki Bokki Boef', with Patty Klein between 1971 and 1975. He was also present in Jippo with 'Flip en Flossie' in 1973 and 1974). Furthermore, he made illustrations for Donald Duck, Bobo, Liselotje, and Wij En Onze Kinderen.

Flip en Flossie (Jippo #1, 1974)

He was a regular illustrator for the pre-school magazine Bobo in the 1970s, for which he also made a comic based on the popular television puppet series 'De Bereboot' by Rolf and Lo Hartog van Banda. He was living and working in Zwolle from 1974. Ton Beek's final known comics work are 'Pink Panter' stories for Semic Press in Sweden during the 1980s.